If you recall, a couple weeks ago I deloaded and sent a video asking for a form check to all of you. Most responses were positive, indicating that my form is sound but my legs are too damn skinny. While this might sound good at first-pass, I was pretty bummed because I was hoping my potentially poor form was contributing to the fact that I can't squat more than a 12 year old school girl.
.... but then, the heavens opened up and a face looked down upon me. A face of mercy, compassion and wisdom. That face was the face of reechee. He told me he knew The Truth, and that The Truth was Hip Drive. After watching a Rippetoe video he recommended, and I went back to the gym and practiced with light weights for a 20 minutes or so, focusing on hip drive. The exact changes I made were leaning forward more, and pulling my ass up higher than I used to before extending my hips and straightening my back. This causes a slight stretch in my hamstrings, which is the cue reechee mentioned in his email. I proceeded to lift my working sets for the day and it felt MUCH better. Highly recommend spending some time playing with this if you haven't already. My only concern now is that I'm leaning forward too much; I plan to post some videos soon.
Progress
Squat: 205, 210, 215, 220 (5/4/5), 220 (5/5/5)
Bench: 180, 185, 190
Press: 125, 130 (5/3/3 <-- really tired on Friday)
DL: 290, 285 (<-- miscalculated the weight today. shoulda been 295).
Power Clean: 135, 145
Even though I was really tired on Friday, the 5/3/3 indicates that I'll probably have to deload the press soon. My bench is also feeling heavy now -- the last rep of the last set was a struggle today.
I have no been eating or sleeping nearly enough to make the gains I want. Protein is likely in my future due to my inability to make myself eat more raw food.
I'd like to see video of your newfound squat mechanics
ReplyDeleteCoach Reechee for President, 2012.
ReplyDeletethe vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yha2XAc2qu8
ReplyDeletei really think this video is going to change my squat.
ReplyDeleteHighly recommend testing it out with lighter weight and trying to feel that slight hamstring stretch feeling. I definitely straight out my entire body much later now (pretty much when the squat is done), instead of slowly extending at the hips as I come up. I feel like I'm pushing way more with my posterior chain as opposed to a more quad-dominant squat.
ReplyDeleteyeah, makes perfect sense what you're saying.
DeleteHAHAHA...someone just walked in on me doing squats in my office.
ReplyDeletebonak, i just did what the vid said compared to normally what i do, and i can really feel the difference in my hamstrings versus quads when i normally do...i just sat down and can actually feel the tightness (dare i say fatigue) of my posterior chain/hammies. so awesome. i'm writing in michael ricci.
ReplyDeletejust wait till you test it on your working sets. as aladdin said, it's a whole new world.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see video of you guys doing these squats. I'm of the opinion that you guys are going to be doing low bar back squats now. There's nothing wrong with that but just from the way you're describing your movements and from the cues/directions rip was giving in the video I'm pretty sure you're transitioning from high bar to low bar.
ReplyDeleteI think JC makes a good point. With low bar, to ensure that the bar is above your center of mass (right above your heals), you will need to lean forward more which is part of my overall form change. However, I have not changed the position of the bar and this might be coaxing me into some mutated good-morning-squat combo. It doesn't feel like that, but it's possible. I'll have to do some experimenting.
ReplyDeleteI should do the following:
(1) Form check video with my change using high bar
(2) Test low bar to see if it feels better